Tourism Entrepreneurship Challenges and Opportunities in Mazandaran

ABSTRACT Tourism industry plays important role in business development in few past year's and tourism, hospitality and leisure industries originally are in the first place based on entrepreneurship. Tourism entrepreneurship is defined as activities related to creating and operating a legal tourist's enterprise. In this study we focused on the factors that suppress developing tourism entrepreneurship in MAZANDARAN as touristic province of IRAN and to find the opportunities for its improving it. This research follows a case-study design, with situation analysis, literature and document analysis, survey, etc. also indepth interviews with 45 specialists. Finding shows, although MAZANDARAN has fabulous nature but the reason of missing infrastructure, lack or insufficient tourism related rules and policies, imbalanced and duty interference of involved organizations not developed in tourism industry. Another problem such as International concern about Iran's nuclear program, support for terrorism, religious rules that restricted many freedoms for people, economic problems, and international sanction, all of these made tourism industry insufficient